News - A brighter future for less ! July 2014...
... A practical experiment comparing halogen spots with LED’s. Jonathan lives with his family in a modern detached home in Dunbar. He is keen to make his home more energy efficient and keep his fuel bills down. BeGreen carried out a free home energy audit on his home. Whilst his home was very energy efficient like most modern homes he has lots of halogen down lighters which use up a lot of electricity during the year. We gave Jonathan a small pack of LED G10 4 watt down lighters to try out. This was Jonathan’s experience “I replaced some of my halogen bulbs with the LED bulbs provided by BeGreen. We have a coat cupboard which is dark even during the day. Our boiler/heating control panel is located in the cupboard and normally we need to use our mobiles to light up the LCD display screen so that we can see what we are doing as the halogen lights that came on are so dim. However this is no longer the case as the LED bulbs provide instant light and I can see the control display panel now with ease. In our kitchen we had eight halogen lights. I put four of the LED light bulbs on one side and the difference is obvious. The side with the LED bulbs is bright, and the other side with the halogen bulbs is clearly dull in comparison. I should point out to be fair that the halogen bulbs eventually do get brighter after 2-3 minutes of being switched on, but it is obviously better not having to wait and having instant light. I am convinced on the LED bulbs now as the performance seems to be better than halogen and given the potential electricity savings they should pay for themselves. I must admit I was a bit surprised that they were instantly bright on being switched on and did not expect this. I'd also say that even when the halogen bulbs are fully warmed up and at their brightest, they are slightly less bright than the LED. I have therefore ordered 20 LED bulbs on Amazon this morning for just under £60”. LED bulbs are coming down in price and are now more widely available. Whilst they are still more expensive than halogens the lighting technology is extremely efficient and so you will use around 90% less electricity than traditional lighting. Also LED lights have a huge life expectancy you will save on the cost of replacing the old traditional bulbs and also the hassle of physically replacing them”. The bulbs Jonathan trialled cost £4 each. Often the more you buy the less they cost per bulb. So it is worth doing some cost comparisons before you buy particularly if you need a lot of them . To find out more about the benefits of switching to LED's visit us at BeGreen and or check out the Energy Saving Trust’s web site: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/scotland/Electricity/Lighting/Lighting-FAQ
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